Zubayer Ahmed

Ethiopian engineer developing AI-driven solutions to address food security challenges

Zubayer Ahmed is an Ethiopian computer scientist and founder of FarmWise AI, a startup using artificial intelligence to optimize agricultural productivity. Born in Addis Ababa in 1995, Ahmed's work began during Ethiopia's 2015-2016 drought which displaced millions. His 2021-developed SmartFarm platform analyzes soil data, weather patterns, and crop yields through satellite imagery and IoT sensors, increasing yields by up to 30%. Deployed across 15 African countries via partnerships with Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), the system now serves 85,000+ smallholder farmers. Ahmed's 2023 collaboration with IBM Research produced the CropPredict model, reducing famine prediction errors by 45%. His TEDx talk "AI Against Hunger" (2024) reached 3 million viewers and inspired similar projects in Bangladesh and Guatemala. FarmWise's 2025 launch of the Mobile Farmer Assistant app provides real-time advice to 200,000 users through low-bandwidth technology. Ahmed's work was featured in the Nature Climate Solutions journal and earned him the 2024 Rolex Award for Enterprise. He currently advises the African Union's Digital Agriculture Initiative, while maintaining partnerships with Harvard's Data Science Lab. His GitHub repository hosts open-source tools used by 50+ universities globally. Ahmed's vision of tech-enabled food sovereignty has become a model for sustainable agriculture in climate-vulnerable regions.